SagharBagheriMD

Summary

• Dr. Saghar Bagheri was born and raised in Germany. She completed her medical education at the University of Düsseldorf, where she also received a PhD in Pharmacology, magna cum laude. Her PhD led to the novel discovery that chronic NSAID use abolishes the anti-platelet action of aspirin, possibly increasing the cardiovascular risk in patients who take aspirin concomitantly with chronic NSAIDs.
  
  Following medical school, she was one of the youngest awardees to receive a prestigious research scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG), and moved to the US to complete fellowships at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, as well as at Mass Eye and Ear at Harvard. At Johns Hopkins, she completed a fellowship in Inherited Retinal Diseases. At Harvard, she worked in the field of Retinal Diseases. She designed and completed a study on a novel outcome measure for Geographic Atrophy trials and published a multi-center study that showed that AMD “non-responders” to anti-VEGF are actually short-term responders, emphasizing the need for individualized therapy.
  
  In 2020, she received a $300,000 AMD Breakthrough Award from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation to continue AMD research. As a resident, Dr. Bagheri received a $150,000 grant to conduct studies on anti-VEGF treatment.
  
  Saghar has also been completing retinal imaging projects related to spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome that occurs in astronauts due to the effects of microgravity as part of NASA’s Visual Impairment Program, and was selected by NASA leadership as one of 14 top candidates in the nation for a 3-day course to the Johnson Space Center in November 2023 to recruit future NASA astronauts and flight surgeons.
  
  Dr. Bagheri is listed as one of the nation’s top vision scientists in the field of Macular Degeneration by ScEYEnce – a group comprised of 10 organizations including American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). She is also a mentor of the AAO/AUPO minority mentorship program.